The Jet Propulsion Laboratory at CalTech has created two animations of supernova events first observed by the Kepler Space Telescope.

The first shows a White dwarf, the burned-out, dense remnant of a star that can no longer consume its nuclear fuel. The dwarf's extreme gravity, produced by its density, is shown stealing matter from a nearby companion star. When the White dwarf reaches approximately 1.4x the size of our Sun's mass, it can no longer sustain the weight, and explodes in a massive "fast-evolving luminous transient" (FELT) supernova.

The second animation shows the supernova created when two white dwarfs circling each other merge.

Either way, the massive stellar events would be super-impressive if you were able to watch from a safe distance. The space telescope represents a fine alternative for now.